# Europe’s Hera mission is ready to double down on asteroid science

Source: [Science News](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/europe-hera-mission-double-asteroid) · 2026-11-12 · Life
Page: https://themorning.science/story/europe-s-hera-mission-is-ready-to-double-down-on-asteroid-science-17dcd545f05d87c0
Kind: research · Impact: medium

## In brief

- ESA's Hera spacecraft has begun close inspections of the Didymos binary asteroid system.
- Hera is inspecting the asteroid that NASA rammed in a 2022 planetary defense test.
- ESA's early preview image was taken from 56 km away and shows the main 780-m-diameter Didymos asteroid, with part of its 151-m moonlet Dimorphos visible.

## Why it matters

Hera's close-up data on Didymos and Dimorphos will show the physical effects of the 2022 impact, which informs whether kinetic impactors can deflect hazardous asteroids.

## Timeline

- 2026-11-12: Hera begins close inspections of the Didymos binary asteroid system

## Coverage

- [Hera spies a half-hidden asteroid moonlet](https://www.esa.int/articles/about-us/directorates/operations/space-safety/hera/hera-spies-a-half-hidden-asteroid-moonlet) — ESA Space News, 2026-11-12
- [Europe’s Hera mission is ready to double down on asteroid science](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/europe-hera-mission-double-asteroid) — Science News, 2026-11-12
- [Europe's Hera spacecraft begins close inspections of an asteroid rammed by NASA in a 2022 test](https://phys.org/news/2026-11-europe-hera-spacecraft-asteroid-rammed.html) — Space News - Space, Astronomy, Space Exploration, 2026-11-12

Tags: asteroids, planetary defense, hera mission, didymos, dart, space missions

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Science – https://themorning.science